James was a full-time writer, part-time coach and part-time wage slave with an extensive history of brain trauma. He was born in 1963, has been involved in sanctioned and unsanctioned boxing since 1976, and co-founded Modern Agonistics with Chuck Goetz in 1998. Since then he has fought in over 600 stick fights and more than 200 machete duels and is still able to tie his shoes. James has been unemployed since December 2017 and homeless since June 2018 and lives as a vagabond.
(electronic mail:) james at jameslafond.com
From 1976 thru 2024, James fought 27 unsanctioned bouts according to Amateur Rules [5 bouts with 16 and 14 oz gloves], LPR Rules [7 bare-knuckle bouts], Gypsy Rules [8 bouts with 4 oz gloves], and Greek Rules [5 bouts with 6 oz kenpo gloves], 2 small circle submission bouts, 1 seated bout, for a record of 7 wins [all by KO], 10 losses [6 by KO] and 11 draws.
Registered Coach: USA Boxing, South Atlantic Association 2002-2004
Head Coach: Dundalk Boxing Team, 2002-2003, and Jim Frederick's Kenpo Karate, 2012-2016
Visiting or Guest Coach: Archbishop Curley MMA 2002-12
Practical MMA 2004, 2012-14, 2018-19
Integrity Boxing [corner man] 2005
Sanctum MMA 2009-2010
Randolph Macon MMA 2010
Sensei Jansen’s Shorin Ryu Karate 2012, 2016-19
Lone Wolf MMA 2012
Baynesville Boxing, temporary, 2012
Lancaster Agonistics, 2017-19
Portland Agonistics, 2020-24
Brickmouse House, 2022-24
Sevierville Agonistics, 2022-24
Joliet Agonistics, 2023
Towson Kempo, 2023-24
Lifetime Member, International Ring 101, Veteran Boxers Association, INC.
Supporter, Loch Raven Boxing Team, since 2002
From 1998 thru 2023 James has fought 685 stick bouts for a record of: 452 wins, 177 losses, 56 draws.
From 2002 thru 2023 James has fought 244 blunt machete duels for: 125 wins, 97 losses, 22 draws.
James was awarded his honorary black sash in Curtado Dos Manos Escrima on 3/17/2003 by Arturo Gabriel.
Stick-fighting Matchmaker for PickYourFight Promotions, 2008-2009
Weaponry coach, Jim Frederick's Kenpo Karate, 2012-2016
Tom Clark's Practical MMA, 2013
Lancaster Agonistics 2017-19
Portland Agonistics, 2020-23
Brickmouse House, 2022-23
Sevierville Agonistics, 2022-24
Joliet Agonistics, 2023
Towson Kempo, 2023
Other sites & sources:
Books written but not published since 2017 as well as books in the works: 'How Many Books Are You Writing?'
- White in the Savage Night, 2017
- The Hunt for Whitey, 2017
- Good Morning Dindustan, 2016
- Dawn in Dindustan, 2016
- A Well of Heroes: Two, 2016
- A Well of Heroes: One, 2016
- Right on White Time, 2016
- One Soul Under God, 2016
- Under the God of Things, 2016 (digital: Under The God Of Things)
- Thriving In Bad Places, 2016 (digital: Thriving In Bad Places)
- A Once Great Medieval City, 2016
- When Your Job Sucks, 2016
- Habitat Hoodrat: Ho Nation, 2016
- Twerps, Goons and Meatshields, 2016
- Paleface Sunset, 2016
- 40,000 Years from Home, 2016
- Into Wicked Company, 2016
- America in Chains, 2016
- Stillbirth of A Nation, 2016
- Our Captain, 2016
- On Bitches, 2016
- Your Trojan Whorse, 2016 (digital: Your Trojan Whorse)
- The Pale Usher, 2016
- The Punishing Art, 2016
- When You're Food: Raw, 2016 (digital: When You're Food)
- Seven Moons Deep, 2016 (digital: The Sunset Saga Complete)
- A White Christmas, 2016
- Skulker Jones, 2016
- Night City, 2016 (digital: Night City)
- Ire and Ice, 2016 (digital: Song Of The Secret Gardener)
- The Jericho Bone, 2016 (digital: Song Of The Secret Gardener)
- DoomFawn, 2016
- Little Feet Going Nowhere, 2016 (digital: Fate)
- Hemavore, 2016
- He, 2016
- Poet, 2016 (digital: Fanatic)
- Reverent Chandler, 2015 (digital: Fanatic)
- The Consultant, 2015 (digital: Time & Cosmos)
- A Hoodrat Halloween, 2015 (digital: Night City)
- Out of Time, 2015 (digital: Time & Cosmos)
- T. Spoone Slickens, Inquire, 2015
- Buzz Bunny, 2015 (digital: Fiction Anthology One)
- The Song of Jeannot, 2015
- Organa [expanded], 2015 (digital: Fiction Anthology One)
- Dream Flower, 2015
- Fat Girl Dancing, 2015
- Road Killing, 2015 (digital: Hate)
- This Design is Called Paisley, 2015
- Hurt Stoker, 2015 (digital: Time & Cosmos)
- Dark Art of an Аrуаn Mystic, 2015
- If I Were King, 2015
- Let the Weak Fall, 2015
- A Sickness of the Heart, 2015
- The Boned Zone, 2015
- Welcome to Harm City: Whiteboy, 2015
- Equidistant Drowning Babies, 2015
- Of Lions and Men, 2015
- A Thousand Years in His Soul: The Seers, 2015
- A Thousand Years in His Soul: The Poets, 2015
- War Drums, 2015
- The End of Masculine Time, 2015
- By the Wine Dark Sea, 2015
- Modern Agonistics, 2015
- The Third Eye, 2015
- Triumph / Triumph, 2015. Available exclusively at the site bookstore.
- Happily Ever Under, 2015
- RetroGenesis, 2015 (digital: Night City)
- Easy Chair, 2015 (digital: Night City)
- God's Picture Maker, 2014 (digital: Fiction Anthology One)
- Black and Pale, 2014 (digital: Song Of The Secret Gardener)
- Darkly, 2014
- Incubus of Your Sacred Emasculation, 2014 (digital: Under The God Of Things)
- Into the Mountains of Madness: Volumes 1,2 & 3, 2014
- Take Me To Your Breeder, 2014
- The Streets Have Eyes, 2014
- Panhandler Nation, 2014
- The Ghetto Grocer, 2014
- American Fist, 2014
- Don't Get Boned, 2014
- The Chinks in the Machine, 2014
- How the Ghetto Got My Soul, 2014
- Alienation Nation, 2014
- Narco Night Train, 2014
- Daughters of Moros, 2014, fiction anthology
- Saving the World Sucks, 2014, essays on writing
- Lesser Angels of Our Nature, 2014, expanded print edition
- Planet Buzzkill, 2014, Novella
- Forty Hands of Night: The Pale Horseman, 2014, 60,000 word historical horror novel set in medieval Egypt
- Fruit of The Deceiver: The Black Horseman, 2014, 30,000 word historical horror novella set in medieval Egypt
- Ghosts of The Sunset World, 2014, part two of Of The Sunset World edited for print release
- Big Water Blood Song, part one of Of The Sunset World, edited for print release
- MotherWorld, 2014, science-fiction anthology for print release
- Sacrifix, 2014, horror anthology for print release
- Rise, 2014, fiction anthology for print release
- Astride The Chariot of Night, 2014, Sunset Saga fiction reformatted as a psychotic myopic meditation on the virtues of extreme paganism, for print release
- When Heroes Fought, 2014, true stories of primal combat related in prose fiction and as historical narrative
- The Caddy, 2014,a Harm City Noir, short serialized in three parts
- Taboo You: Way of the Terminal Man, 2014, an anarchistic urban survivalist handbook for the inveterate loner (digital: Taboo You)
- Fruit of The Deceiver, 2014, a historical horror serial based on the art of Jason Lenox
- confidential, 2014, a non-fiction book ghost written for another author, 46,910 words
- The Man Cave, 2014, militant anti-feminist, anti-Chimpanzee literature devoted to finding the few real men who still have their heads above the estrogen tide of the manginatis zombie apocalypse, never to be published anywhere but here
- Darkly: Dystopia in Power, 2013, science-fiction anthology, unpublished
- Winter: Anno Domini, 2013, horror serial
- Little Feet Going Nowhere, 2013, unpublished science-fiction novelette
- Menthol Rampage / Menthol Rampage, 2013, self-published noir novelette
- Riding The Nightmare / Riding the Nightmare, 2013, autumn horror collection
- Wake From Your Dream Place, 2013, unpublished horror novelette
- If You Think The Fates Are Against You: The Doom of Benjamin Long, 2013, self-published noir story
- The Children of Yakub: A Dark Fantasy, 2013, a self-published serialized novella
- The Last Man: The Upgrading of Dwayne Munson, 2013, self-published science-fiction vignette
- The Drawing Board, 2013, self-published reviews of unpublished literature
- The Sport of Kings, 2013, self-published opinion: or a war gamer's view of geopolitics
- God's Picture Maker, 2013, unpublished science-fiction novel (digital: The Sunset Saga Complete)
- Poet, 2013, self-published contemporary noir serial (digital: Fanatic)
- Summer Moon, 2013, self-published horror story
- No Uke News, 2013, self-published oral history of martial artists in actual violent encounters
- Black Gorilla Family News, 2013, self-published politically incorrect investigative reporting on the world's most politically incorrect gang
- Narco-State News, 2013, self-published news and oral history concerning drug-related crime
- Jack-Boot Brigade, 2013, self-published news and oral history concerning the rise of the post-modern American Police State.
- Ghetto Grocer, 2013, self-published retail food survival guide
- Breeder's Digest, 2013, self-published newsletter
- Out of Time: A Sunset Saga Serial, 2013, self-published randomly plotted science-fiction serial (digital: Time & Cosmos)
- Hemavore: Terra Side, 2572, 2013, science-fiction serial co-authored with Dominick Mattero
- Ever Less, Ever More, 2013, a self-published short story
- God of War, 2013, self-published novelette (digital: Fiction Anthology One)
- The Spiral Case, 2013, a self-published science-fiction serial set in the 19th Century
- The Worst Military Jobs in History, 2013, self-published, military job descriptions
- Panhandler Nation urban lifestyle, 2013, self-published
- The Streets Have Eyes urban character sketches, 2013, self-published
- The Winter of a Fighting Life: A Kinetic Memoir, 2013, self-published, self-help/combat sports
- Hurt Stoker, 2013, self-published novel released as an online serial (digital: Time & Cosmos)
- Den of The Ender, 2012, self-published novel. Part 3 of 4 of Cities of Dust (digital: The Sunset Saga Complete)
- Letters From an Extraterrestrial Anthropologist, 2012, self-published noir essays attributed to ancient astronaut Regal M-116-S
- Behind the Sunset Veil, 2012, self-published novel. Part 2 of 4 of Cities of Dust (digital: The Sunset Saga Complete)
- The World is Or Widow, 2012, self-published novel. Part 1 of 4 of Cities of Dust (digital: The Sunset Saga Complete)
- Buzz Bunny, 2012, self-published novelette (digital: Fiction Anthology One)
- Hallowed, 2012, self-published short story
- This Design is Called Paisley, 2012, self-published novelette
- First Contact, 2012, self-published sci-fi/horror serial
- Organa, 2012, self-published novelette (digital: Fiction Anthology One)
- The Lesser Angels Of Our Nature, 2012, self-published memoir (digital: The Lesser Angels Of Our Nature)
- Soter's Way, 2012, self-published novelette (digital: Fiction Anthology One)
- The Logic of Force, 2012, Paladin Press, self-defense guide (digital: Logic Of Force)
- By This Axe!, 2012, self-published novelette (digital: Fiction Anthology One)
- Predation, 2012, self-published survival guide (digital: Predation)
- Inside The Ropes, 2012.
- Pillagers Of Time, 2012, Self-published. The novel Beyond the Ember Star, the short novel Comes the Six Winter Night and the novel Thunder-Boy. Also includes the short stories: Inception, Under the Crooked Tree, Independence Day and Cave Boy. Time-hunters raid the deep past for genetic diversity. A 16th Century Native American boy steals a time-machine, explores 21st Century Baltimore and 29th Century Virginia, and returns to his own world. (digital: The Sunset Saga Complete)
- Harm City, Urban Survival in the Postmodern World, 2011, self-published online journal
- Modern Combat, an online Combat Arts Journal, 2011, self-published
- Of The Sunset World / Of The Sunset World, 2011, Self-published. A diverse cast of time-travelers and a handicapped Iroquois boy explore 16th Century North America and 21st Century Maryland, battling conquistadors and genetically engineered assassins.
- The First Boxers / The First Boxers, 2011, Self-published
- The Gods Of Boxing / The Gods Of Boxing, 2011, Self-published
- All-Power-Fighting / All-power-fighting, 2011, Self-published
- Even More Dangerously Fun Stuff, 2010, Paladin, page 108-109.
- A Fighter's View: The Modern Agonistics Handbook, 2011, self-published. I wrote this in ten days in February 2011 for the guys I have trained with at Adam Swinder's request. It is available as a free download in the Agonistics section.
- When You're Food / When You're Food, 2011, self-published memoir/survival guide, awaiting paperback publishing. Paladin is holding off on contracting for this volume until they see how The Logic of Force sells. This is, according to David Carl and Adam Swinder, the best thing I have ever written. I can definitely say that this is the most politically incorrect thing I have written. Available in the Harm City column.
- The Broken Dance, 2005, submitted to Paladin Press and contracted but postponed. One copy of this 350 page monster remains in my possession, which has become my primary research tool—a pointer to my notes. It has since been rewritten into three smaller volumes and shall form the basis for a fourth. Mastered into a digital presentation (HTML pages) by the site webmaster, the 3-volume complete edition is available here: Broken Dance
- Anatomy of A Knockout, 2007, Black Belt Magazine. A spruced up version of the study I did for Tom Petroski. I lost my copy.
- Blade Against Blade, 2006, Black Belt Magazine, September. An Agonistics based article.
- November 2005, Black Belt Magazine, page 16, a letter to readers about researching western martial arts. It should have been an article. At least the point was made.
- The Truth About Street Fighters, 2005, Black Belt Magazine, August. This is a good article. This guy is a cynical smartass with a gift for a neat phrase. He should have been a boxing writer.
- The Violence Project, 2004, Black Belt Magazine, June. This was basically my own review of my study, and I blew it. I don't like it as an article.
- Reality of the Mass Attack, 2003, Black Belt Magazine, November. I explore mass attack in a Q & A format. This is not really even writing.
- August 2003, Black Belt Magazine, letter on page 18.
- March 2003, Black Belt Magazine, A letter from a South African knife enthusiast expands on the Reality of the Stab article.
- Reality of the Stab, 2002, Black Belt Magazine, September. This piece was nice and nasty and featured my oldest son Jerad in the photos. I must say we make a likely pair of white-trash knife-jockeys. I love this piece. I got away with nick-naming a knife stoke "the Baby Bates”! The Black Belt people were definitely tolerant.
- The Advantage Knifer, 2002, TaeKwonDo Times, January. This was basically an excerpt from The Logic of Steel run in exchange for an ad.
- Reality of the Club, 2002, Black Belt Magazine, January. The question and answer format is now used for beatings. Magazines really like Q & A formats so I was just being a little whore, getting my $250 per an article.
- Incapacitation Study August 2001, for Supervisory Agent Tom Petroski, FBI, Quantico, VA. Tom was a really cool dude. He was in charge of teaching legal force applications and was horrified by the DOJs ruling that they could no longer teach the choke since the death of some overweight crack-head in Pittsburgh. Tom served in the Marines with a distant cousin of mine from Fall River, MA. I hope the study I sent him helped his case. In any event, once the 9/11 attacks hit he became too busy to keep in touch with. Hope it went well Tom.
- The Logic of Steel, 2001, Paladin Press, June. This was actually accepted for publication in September of 2000. I never got press-run numbers from Paladin and as an author not all sales and certainly not promotional copies are credited to your account. So I do not even know how many copies are out there. Some guy on the internet is selling them for $249.00! It's a good book, but I'd feel guilty if you paid that much for it. Besides, I won't see any of the dough. I was paid about .90 per sale. I also do not know how many times they reprinted this. They asked me twice. In September 2010 Paladin asked me if they could release it as an E-book. Digital copy available here: Logic Of Steel
- April 2001, Black Belt Magazine, a letter from a PA bouncer about the Reality of the Blade article appears on page 14.
- Wrestling with the Truth, 2001, Black Belt Magazine, May. This is a one page article in which I actually admitted to millions that I had been a psychopathic teenage predator who got his rocks off hunting down isolated jocks in a small town. It was kind of my ode to wrestlers. As with everything from this period my use of statistics—excuse me, percentages—was meat-fisted. Only the author's embarrassing admission makes it worth reading.
- Staying Alive February 2001, unpublished. Paladin expressed interest in the manuscript but held back on a contract pending changes to the texts and statistical presentation.
- Reality of the Blade, 2001, Black Belt Magazine, January. This is done in a question and answer format, and is based on the same information as the then upcoming Logic of Steel book. It looks a lot like shameless self-promotion from here.
- Self Defense & The Knockout, 2000, TaeKwonDo Times, November. This was a very detailed and not very readable piece. I just jammed too much information down the reader's throat.
- The Violence Project May 2000, unpublished. This survey of 1675 acts of violence was completed, compiled, and used to form the basis for much of the following. It has been pointed out, accurately so, that I am no statistician. But you know what, when only 9 out of every 100 knifers use an ice-pick grip, that is 9%, in my damaged brain and in your nice spiffy new one.
- The Fighting Edge, 2000, Paladin Press. This book enjoyed moderate sales and fair reviews. I really don't like it that much. The first 5 pages sold it: the author getting his ass kicked in a supermarket by two coworkers. It was intended as a self-help book for teenage boys who had the desire to learn self-defense, but not the means to access commercial programs. Digital version available here: The Fighting Edge
- Boxing & Martial Arts, 2000, TaeKwonDo Times, March. I did not get paid for the TaeKwonDo Times pieces. They ran my book ads instead. Carol Davis Hart, the Managing Editor, was a doll-baby and I would have written for her without any compensation. I just reread this piece and it is actually good. The about-the-author blurb announces my upcoming book.
- Bad Intentions 1998, Black Belt Magazine. I do not have a copy of this issue and can only guess at the content based on the title which I know was mine.
I originally became interested in gaming by accident. In 1975 I was a boy who loved tanks. When I saw a box with actual German tank silhouettes on the cover at the toy store I bought it for $9. It was Panzer Blitz, a platoon and company level simulation of combat on the Russian Front. It wasn't until 1976 that I finally learned how to play the thing. Then a friend informed me that there were also games that permitted players to play adventurers. I took one look at my Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard collections of $1.95 paperbacks and said "I'm in!”
For what's it is worth I'm a mediocre gamer, unless we're playing Empires in Arms or you actually let me play the Confederacy in The Civil War by Victory Games. As far as game design I'm good on concepts and maps and weak on development and mechanics. What follows is my meager contribution to the hobby that I have not been able to enjoy nearly as much as I would have liked. If I get old though, I'll be rolling some dice…
From 1980 through 1996 I designed various table top war games: including Shield Wall 1066, Priest Kings and Daimyo. I believe I lacked the development skills [and perhaps the raw intellect] to bring these efforts to fruition. They were interesting designs and I made some really nice maps. But the designs were ambitious and I lacked the development skills to pull off these projects so I scratched them mid way.
I suppose my pursuit of science-fiction, history and hand-to-hand combat arts are actually reflected in my odd impulse to attempt to create simulations for these subjects. My youngest son has recently suggested that I rewrite some of the things that I produced and/or published in the 1980s and 1990s. What follows is an outline of the games I managed to design for publication and the role-playing material I produced in this period. To a large extent this is how I learned to write for publication, and I owe Stewart Wieck , Steve Sechi, Lou Zocchi and Daniel Kipp a great deal for their creative, editorial and marketing advice.
- Tyrants of Yitar 1988, self-published, 35 copies produced by photocopier (30 sold). This was a one-play fantasy game designed to be purchased and played at game conventions. The players each take the role of a petty tyrant of a warring valley. The objective is to become Pontiff of Yitar before the barbarian hordes arrive and exterminate everyone. The Pontiff will at least be assured his place in Paradise. The losers simply become barbarian resources of either the portable, flammable or decorative variety. 8-1/2 by 11 map, 8-page rule and event booklet, 25 cutout counters, $2.45
- Pizza Wars 1988, self-published, 1,750 copies printed (1,700 sold). This is a board game played with a pizza, using slices as territories to be fought over and toppings as armies to be maneuvered around the pizza with toothpicks. This began as a joke and I could not believe it when it took off as a game that people really played. After play-testing the thing I didn't eat Pizza for years. 4-page illustrated pamphlet, $1.95
- Pizza Wars Imperium Self-published, 1,750 copies printed (1,720 sold). This was an elaborate version of Pizza Wars with special ability rules for the various toppings, and optional rules for terrain and genocide. Richard Thomas did such a nice job illustrating the various topping-inspired races of combatants for this brutal pizza-top world that some role-players even wrote the author claiming that they used the Imperium as a setting for their campaigns. 22-page illustrated booklet, $3.95
- Keepers of the Law 1988, White Wolf Magazine #12, pages 40-42. This offered a system of law and a monastic order to act as a judiciary, loosely based on the Inquisition and Gene Wolf's Shadow of the Torturer novel. It is pretty dry reading but there were only 2 typos and the structure was not bad. I only yawned twice in three pages.
- Tribes Volume One, 1989, 40 copies produced by photocopier (34 sold). Upon deciding to create a hypothetical future Earth I employed the following mental exercise: instead of asking James-whoever-that-guy-is-from-Baltimore what Earth might look like after 250,000,000 years how about if I asked Edgar Allen Poe and Sigmund Freud…but not before sitting them down in a poorly lit room with enough booze for Edgar and enough cocaine for Sigmund. This resulted in a fairly dark world which it would be the author's task to illuminate. Tribes was serialized through ads in a couple of small publications. Richard Thomas and Joseph Bellofatto did a wonderful job illustrating the series. But I could not afford a proper production or marketing effort so it was doomed. Fortunately it received some good reviews in magazines and at conventions and Steve Sechi of Bard Games offered me a book deal. Five 14-19 page 8-1/2 by 11 booklets, $3 each or $13 per the set.
- Tribes Thunder Seed, 1990, unpublished. I wrote this setting for the FRP magazine market. It was rejected. It had some interesting elements, but upon rereading it I would have rejected it too. No, you can't read it, it sucks. 15-page double-spaced manuscript
- Terra Australis Incognito 1990, unpublished. After spending a few months researching the early modern European beliefs in a great unknown southern landmass—then thought necessary to balance the northern landmasses—named Terra Australis Incognito I decided to design a role-playing setting set in 1861 based on the premise that this had been the case. Stewart and I both thought it was a fun idea but agreed that younger role-players would really not be into it. I might write it as a novel some day. All that remains is a map. The notes and synopsis are missing.
- Gods of Hur 1991, unpublished. This was another science-fiction setting written for a proposed series of campaign books to be published by White Wolf. Stewart sent me a nice rejection letter. I just reread it and I don't like it [the article I mean—the rejection letter was very nicely done] though the premise was good; another example of not having the development talent to pull off a good design. 8-page double-spaced manuscript
- Pizza Wars 101 1991, self-published, 100 promotional copies. This was a placemat design intended to promote the upcoming Pizza Wars Apocalypse. This is really all you need [besides dice, toothpicks and antacid] to play with your pizza. I have to admit, that this was a lot of lowbrow fun.
- Pizza Wars Apocalypse 1991, unpublished. I think this is when I found out that my wife was pregnant. By 1994 I was working six [yes that's 6] jobs. I still have the illustrations by Richard Thomas and may one day rewrite it for publication. 18-page double-spaced illustrated manuscript
- Pizza Krieg 1991, 200 copies. A Belgian guy living in Germany (I lost our correspondence) bought the German language rights to Pizza Wars and actually sent me a copy of the game, in a painted pizza box with dice and toothpicks, and even a pamphlet describing what a pizza was and how to make one if you did not live near a pizza shop!
- What's In A Name? 1992, unpublished. Barring a few composition flaws this is the best piece I had written to date. For four pages I discussed the usefulness of developing parallel naming traditions for a role-playing setting. I thought it was pretty good stuff, and then I turned to page five and that was it, a list [with no explanations] of seven generic naming templates. Are you kidding me LaFond!?! I don't even know if I submitted it to anyone. 5-page double-spaced manuscript
- Tribes 1993, unpublished. Having finally produced the Tribes sourcebook for Bard Games, Steve informed me that he was selling off his business. He did write a nice foreword for the book and put me in touch with the company who bought him out, but this stuff was too gory for them. Besides, I was still using a typewriter. 201-page double-spaced illustrated hardcopy
- Galactic Gluttons 1994, Strategic Castle Publications (by Daniel Kipp and Anthony Bainer). I just came up with the title. The guys that owned the Strategic Castle game store on Tollgate Road in Belair Maryland wrote and published this. I don't know how many they sold but I still have my free copy. 6-page pamphlet
Note: in 1994, according to my surviving letters, I was negotiating licensing deals for Pizza Wars with an Italian game designer who wrote on plush cotton-base letterhead and Lou Zocchi of Gamscience, a genius who designed a many sided dice and once won an award for a game he designed in the 1970s. If I recall correctly he woke me up with a phone call about making sure I put rules for pineapple in the next Pizza Wars game. I still have both copies of the contract he sent me so it appears we didn't agree on a deal.
I was working 113 hours a week basically lifting stuff and had given up writing by this point. Fortune—for the starving writer within—soon struck, in the form of a catastrophic back injury that eventually cost me my house, two cars, one girlfriend and a wife. Yeah, I think that's the correct order.
- Tribes 1995, unpublished. This combined Steve's foreword, the book, and the five serials into one package. I submitted it to three publishers and got the following responses: ‘nice-but-too-nasty'; ‘we don't do this stuff anymore'; and ‘who are you again, and do you know what a computer is'. Dan Kipp began helping develop this as a role-playing game and then we both got really busy. I still have seven pages of his correspondence concerning the project. This is really too much material for me to read right now. I know the illustrations are very good. My guess is that the gaming material needs to be discarded and the source material rewritten. When I finally rewrite it expect it to be published as a PDF.
- Peopling a Fantasy World 1995, unpublished. This is big chunky article rejected by White Wolf. 8-page double-spaced manuscript with tables
- A Way With Names 1995, accepted for publication by White Wolf Magazine, 2/6/95. It was nice to find an acceptance letter among all of those rejected articles. I heard in the late 1990s that someone had read this article online and it was attributed to me. I do not, however, remember getting my nickel a word or the free copy. I actually think White Wolf Magazine went out of publication before this article got into print. In any case, I have the manuscript. Essentially this is the second half of What's In A Name written in 1992. It has some of the same structural problems. Honestly, I don't see it standing well on its own without the one I wrote earlier as an introduction. It is obvious that I have internalized the advice put forward in these pieces in writing the Sunset Saga. This might be worth a re-write. 5-page double-spaced manuscript
- Fights: Gritty Scraps & Epic Brawls Unpublished. This was written with the intention of self-publishing. I ran into development problems and scrapped it. It was basically a table-top paper and dice fight simulation similar to what is being done on Spike's Deadliest Warrior show. If I can get some help with development I might rework the scraps into a combat-oriented role-playing game. It was at this point that my mind became more interested in researching combat arts and contemporary violence. Looked at from a 2011 vantage point this half-hearted design attempt looks almost like a departure point for a mind gradually becoming seduced by violence into the non-fiction work that would obsess me from January 1996 until June of 2000. 29-page single-spaced indexed manuscript
- Triumph RPG 2012, unpublished role playing game, sent out for playtesting in September 2012, projected publication January 2014.
At some point I intend to rewrite and complete some of the material above. I do possess some nice artwork that should not go to waste. Richard and Joseph's work in support of my odd flights of fantasy still remains to be illuminated. When it is done it should be available here.
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The Acts Of Awes West: A Tale Of Elder Earth
A mind with no name, working weird wills in a world long ago fallen insane, the Sorcerer is a seeker searching for Powers Unuttered, traversing a world riven by a false meridian. A Unique American Fantasy.
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